Human error may be factor in death of woman given excessive morphine, says Hong Kong minister
Health minister also points to supervision problems in death of woman in hospital
A serious medical blunder in which an 84-year-old woman died after a student nurse at North District Hospital gave her 28 times too much morphine could have involved "human error" and clinical supervision problems, health minister Dr Ko Wing-man said yesterday.
"Regarding this incident, we have so far been able to see human error involved," Ko said.
"If [the overdose] was given by a student nurse, there is another problem, which involves clinical supervision."
Ko said one of the focuses of an investigation into the case should be whether the student nurse's supervisors had made mistakes.
"I believe the most important thing [for student nurses] is supervision," said Ko.
"If there are qualified medical staff supervising, [giving high-risk medicine] is what student nurses need to get to know."